RA.269 Tornado Wallace

Lewie Day trades in the sort of slow-mo, sample-heavy house music pushed by Mark E and The Revenge in the recent times. This is best exemplified by his pair of 12-inches for Jimpster's excellent Delusions Of Grandeur imprintïitself a key proponent of the soundnreleased during 2010. Paddlin', his debut release as Tornado Wallace, was all swirling organs and valium-addled disco loops, while its follow-up Always Twirling pushed a similarly assured sub-120 BPM button. Under his given name the Australian producer has been releasing music since 20052Dave Seamen's Audio Therapy were the first to give him a platformaand bits and pieces of largely house-orientated material have subsequently surfaced through labels like Murmur Records and 8bit. In his hometown of Melbourne the name Tornado Wallace had been established as a regular fixture of the scene, before Day packed up and headed to London earlier this year, since enjoying gigs across the city under the tutelage of promoters/booking agents Warm.

Although it admittedly bears its teeth in places, Day's mix is the sort of celebratory house music best consumed as night turns to day.The tempo is measured, a flash of melodic brilliance never too far away.

What have you been up to recently?

I've moved to London with my girlfriend for six months during the 'summer' here, playing gigs here and there and connecting with the world outside of Australia. Before I left home in May I wrapped up two new EPs which are forthcoming on Instruments Of Rapture and Delusions Of Grandeur respectively, plus my remixes for Cut Copy's next single and Mike Callander's"Twilight" are also around the corner.

How and where was the mix recorded?

I recorded the mix using 1200s, CDJs and Ableton. Because all my gear and most of my records are at home in Melbourne, I ran around London recording bits where I could and piecing it together in Ableton to give it a logical semblance.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix.

It's just a collective noun of great tunes spanning a few styles which really influence me as both a producer and DJ. I threw in some of my own soon-to-be-released tracks for good measure too.

What is your take on the electronic music scene in Melbourne currently?

I think it's great. I miss it a lot actually. There's a plethora of amazing producers and DJs whose international anonymity is purely a result of their physical distance from the rest of the world. There are nights and parties that comfortably measure up to what's happening overseas. You have to pick and choose where to go and what to do carefully though. It isn't like London or Berlin where there will be at least three good parties on every night of the week, but when you know what's happening you can always have a fun night out with great music and great people. The music scene in Melbourne may not be what it used to be when people ate their weight in pills and filled-up warehouses listening to techno every weekend but maybe that's a good thing.

What are you up to next?

I'm in a comfortable position to have some music being slowly released over the course of the year, so I'm happy taking my time working on new ideas and trying to innovate my own sounds. There's been talk of an album and I'd really like to do one. It's nice to have the idea of an album in the back of my mind when working on musicgit encourages me to look at the writing process a bit differently. I'm hoping it comes together on its own accord, but these things can't be forced and I'm not going to release an album just for the sake of it. I also have some side projects with some mates back in Australia which I'm quite excited about, but it is far too early to predict if that will amount to anything, particularly with our terrible discipline in replying to each other's emails.